No.11 | Before You Decide You Need More Space

The Invisible Layer Series No.11 | August 2026

A note from Jacqui

I love finding ways to make a home feel more generous than its floor plan suggests. The trick is to manipulate what you have to work with.

Changing how you arrive, move through the property and experience each room can make existing space work much harder, especially once the private and public areas have been identified.

Warm regards,
Jacqui

The Invisible Layer Series No.11

Why Some Homes Feel Bigger Than They Are

The way you move through a home changes depending on what you are doing and who is using it. Arriving with groceries calls for convenient access to the pantry and kitchen, while a guest entering through the front door should be drawn naturally towards the living areas without passing bedrooms or utility spaces along the way.

We explored this in a floor plan review where the relationship between several functions around the original entry had not been fully considered or integrated. Our proposed design created a proper entry foyer, with a new concealed door from the foyer into the pantry providing direct access to the kitchen’s working area, while guests could continue naturally towards the main living spaces.

Existing plan showing the original entry arrangement by architect.

Proposed plan showing the revised entry and new access into the pantry by Patina Design Studio.

Larger homes generally have more activity happening away from the principal rooms, so those routes become even more important. Someone coming inside from the pool should be able to reach an appropriate bathroom or changing area without bringing wet feet and towels through the living room. The route between bedrooms and the laundry can also reduce how far washing travels through the house, keeping that repeated daily movement away from the spaces used for living and entertaining.

Homes of 800 square metres or more can still feel less generous than considerably smaller properties when the circulation is inefficient. Extra floor area loses much of its advantage when everyday movement requires unnecessarily long routes or interferes with how the rooms themselves are used.

A bedroom door opening directly towards an entertaining area can usually be repositioned to improve privacy with relatively contained work. Moving a staircase is a very different proposition because its position can affect several levels, circulation and typically requires structural work. Understanding the difference helps establish how much intervention a property actually requires, particularly when comparing homes with similar floor areas.

Families considering an extension because the kitchen and living areas feel cramped may find that circulation is consuming space they already have, while another property genuinely needs additional floor area to accommodate the brief. Working that out early gives any new floor area a clear purpose and allows it to be integrated properly with the rest of the house.